Recently, an NYU freshman has gone viral.
He commutes to Florida every week for an internship, and over six months he has already spent over $10,000.
This young man is neither a wealthy jetsetter who loves vacationing nor someone unwilling to find an internship locally in New York. The truth behind it is a bit heartbreaking...
.png)
NYU Freshman Commutes to Florida for Internship
Campanaro is a freshman at NYU, currently interning at The Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Florida.
He says that while the weekly round-trip airfare costs about $500, compared to lodging in the tourist-heavy Naples area, it is indeed a money-saver.
"This is anything but easy." Campanaro's schedule is straight out of hell:
Every Friday after his noon NYU class ends, he flies to Florida for his internship. He flies back to New York around 9 pm on Sunday, usually arriving at his student dorm after midnight. And sometimes when flight prices spike, he has to take red-eye flights or even sleep at the airport.
He notes that finding a decent internship in the hotel industry is really tough. Despite the abundance of hotels in New York, he ultimately found this internship at The Ritz-Carlton in Florida.
"Internship competition is incredibly fierce these days. You need not only a perfect resume and GPA but also enough stress tolerance. The harsh truth is: out of 200 applications, you might not get a single offer."
Campanaro is currently pursuing a dual degree at NYU. As a freshman, he obviously doesn't have as much experience or competitive edge as upperclassmen.
Despite the exhausting and costly weekly commute between New York and Florida, he says he is happy to have this internship opportunity: "I have learned a lot about five-star hotel management philosophy and how to anticipate clients' needs."
Whether it's really worth the price is entirely a matter of personal perspective.
Canadian Student Flies to Class
At UBC there is a Chinese-Canadian student who also flies to school every week.
Tim Chen is a student at the University of British Columbia. He flies to class twice a week.
Tim explains that the round-trip flight costing C$150 each time works out to be much cheaper than renting an apartment in Vancouver.
He spends about C$1,200 per month on flights, whereas renting a 1B1B near campus would cost around C$2,100 monthly.
He currently lives with his parents in Calgary and flies to Vancouver every Tuesday and Thursday for classes. He usually leaves in the morning and gets back home at night.
Reddit users are shocked:
"I thought my commute was crazy until I saw this post"
"His flight footprint rivals Taylor Swift's"
"I mean, UBC isn't a must. Wouldn't it be nicer to go to a university near home?"
But some netizens voiced support:
"It's indeed doable. Just over an hour’s flight, and the tickets are cheaper than rent plus utilities and daily expenses."
"Great idea, but sounds a bit sad"
UBC's vice-president expressed sympathy and will urge the university to provide below-market-rate student housing.
In fact, Tim isn't the first clever one to pull this off. There's also a University of Toronto student who commutes from Vancouver to Toronto – a 3,000 km one-way trip 😅
The blogger says that to get cheap flights, they sometimes need to connect, making the one-way journey up to five hours. But compared to the monthly rent of C$1,300, flying for eight months only cost a total of $1,920. She says it was tough but well worth it.
Netizens were stunned and some even asked her to share a budget airline guide. After all, a round trip for just $60 is quite something.
Flying to UC Berkeley 3 Times a Week
There’s also a Los Angeles guy, Bill, who flies to UC Berkeley for classes at least three times a week, just to save on the expensive rent in the Bay Area.
"My classmates thought I would give up after the first week, but I kept it up for the whole academic year. I treat it as traveling, not commuting."
Bill's day is like a CEO's schedule. He wakes up at 3:30 am, flies from LAX to SFO at 6 am, takes the 8:30 BART to make it to his 10 am morning class. After a full day of classes, he retraces the route back to Los Angeles, usually arriving late at night.
Classmates rarely ask me what I'm having for dinner; they just ask, "When are you flying back?"
Bill says that while being a super commuter sounds crazy, it really saves money. Over the entire academic year, his commuting expenses came to about $5,592. He mainly flew Alaska, Southwest, and United, and used miles from points to cover many flights.
According to his tally, he flew 238 times, covering over 92,000 miles, spending 75,955 minutes, which is the equivalent of 53 days on the road.
"It's the craziest thing I've ever done, and I'm so glad I did it. I didn't miss a single class and graduated with a 3.88 GPA."
On his final Southwest flight, Bill wrote a thank-you note to the crew and got a chance to take a photo with the captain.
Reddit comments:
"UC Berkeley really isn't for normal people."
"I don't believe it. It's humanly impossible to have that kind of perseverance."
"When job hunting later, just pull out this experience and you'll be unbeatable. Pulling this off requires extreme self-discipline, planning, and execution. I truly admire it."
"Dude, go into consulting after graduation, it's a perfect fit."
Of course, some netizens felt it wasn't worth it, saying that after all that time and energy, he didn't save that much money.
On the Road: Americans Abroad
These young people who fly to school or internships are in pain but also enjoying it.
Behind these stories lie the perennial issues we all care about: difficulty in finding jobs and high housing costs.
These seemingly cliché topics are still hotly debated every year, even making it to the big screen, and they continue to strike a chord with each new wave of people studying, working, and living overseas.
In the movie "Problemista," the protagonist is an art student struggling to get a work visa in New York. It's funny yet tinged with sadness, and I believe many international students will relate.
Applying is tough, studying is hard, the H-1B lottery is dreadful, and the green card wait is endless. Many people have been in the U.S. for 10 years before just getting on their feet, and they still face uncertainties like layoffs.
Some thought of having Canadian PR as a backup, but little did they know policy tightening there is even faster than in the U.S.
The experiences of those who came before can be heard, but they are hard to replicate. After all, everyone's values and backgrounds are vastly different, and policies change constantly, continually influencing our thoughts and decisions.
Security may not be given by a green card; finding the right academic and career path is also crucial. Whatever the outcome, I hope that each step of the journey leaves you with no regrets.
I hope all students studying abroad can hold firm in their beliefs and pursue their dreams. Let us encourage one another!
